We have walls...

well we have some walls!!  It's the entertainment room - a glamourous name for the room that will house the TV!! Currently housing our oven!!

The original plan was to get this room gyprocked then move all the stuff Dale has everywhere into this room but the plan is always changing and we are now getting the whole lower level done first (so hopefully I'll be doing something in the form of painting soon).

Labourer Luke

Doing a fantastic job!!

I Can't Believe it's Been So Long!!

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. But I find frames and electrical wires boring and that is all that was happening for ages.

But now we have tiles and granite and I LOVE it!!! How great is our main family bathroom. Well so far anyway!

We've been shopping!!

A couple of weeks ago I saw an ad for a carpark sale at the local bathroom shop so we stopped past on our way to Westmead for a family meeting day. We picked up a sink for the main bathroom, vanity unit for the ensuite and our laundry sink. Best of all it was all really CHEAP!!!

Then I saw an ad for a Harvey Norman Clearance centre. So we got up at some ridiculous hour in the morning and headed to the sale. We were 18 and 19 in the line and it paid off. We got so much stuff and spent less than $1500.

Tallboy for the main bathroom

Shaving Cabinet for the main bathroom

We got three of these toilets and they were only $50 each!! And in the growing QLD beach theme of our house they are called Bribie which is the name of a beach I spent nearly every weekend at growing up.

Vanity for the downstairs toilet

Our last minute luxury item - heated towel rail for the ensuite

We even got ourselves a kitchen sink - it's so cool it comes with heaps of accessories including chopping board and colander!

We got most of the tapware

Finally, a big thanks to Tony for getting us our internal doors - a big 920 wide

We're all locked up!

How cool is our front door? It went on yesterday and I can't wait to go over there this afternoon and see it in real life. We had the glass door at the back of the house fixed the other day too so we are officially locked up.

We also had the frame inspection this morning and everything is good. So I guess that means we keep building. Dale tells me lock up is about half way... which is great but still a loooooooooong way to go!

A Very Important Piece of Metal

These piccies are from a couple of weeks ago. Dale was very adament that I would want to get a photo of the Barge Capping. So I loaded the children in the car and met Dale at "The Block" as it is so affectionatly called.

So here is the Barge Capping that Dale was so excited about (this is actually one of my favourite views of our house, it's so much nicer than the front view and the only place you can see it is from the neighbours driveway!)
Here is a close up - now I thought it was that the side of the roof was finished off with the whole side panel but he is only talking about the smooth piece of right angle metal that sits on the top! I went all the way to the block with two cranky kids to see this!!

More photos of the front of the house

Our broken door :( It really seems to be true that things take ages when you're an owner builder. This door was broken AGES ago and the guys who did it said they would pay for it. So we rang the company we bought the door from and asked if they could give us a price. They insisted on sending someone out as "there are many different types of glass and we need to make sure we quote on the right one". Doesn't matter that we had only bought it a couple of weeks before and there was no way they could just give us a ballpark figure. Anyway the guy that comes out to inspect the door so we can find out how much it will cost to fix needs to be booked 2 weeks in advance. Then everytime he comes Dale is in Sydney or Newcastle and can't let the guy in!! Still waiting to find out how much to get the glass replaced......

It seems so far down now that the scaffolding has gone!!!

We also have an outside tap!! YAY!!

The place where our front door will be, hopefully sometime in the next week or so. I love that you can see the trees as soon as you walk in the front door!

And finally, here is Dale in front of the house that he built! As much as I Can't Believe He Talked Me Into It I think he has done an awesome job. He really is amazing, the amount of hard work he has done so far is mind blowing. I really am proud of him and will be so happy when we finally get to move in.

It's All or Nothing

It felt like there was nothing happening for so long but that's all changed! I finally have more to look at than where the pipes are - Dale took so many photos of where all our water and gas pipes are in the walls for future reference. I might appreciate it later when he doesn't drill through the gas pipe but there are only so many pictures of frames and pipes you can look at and still be excicted!!

But in the last couple of weeks the bricks were finished off then they were cleaned

and both garage doors are on. It looks great! I can't wait to get the front door now!!

So much has been happening, it's all exciting again!

Dale keeps working but it seems like nothing is happening!

Everytime I go to the Block lately Dale is keen to show me what's been done. So I eagerly take the camera only to find that I can't get a decent photo because it doesn't really look that much different!! Like the built in wardrobes he spent a day building I show up and the only thing I notice as being different is a tiny little wall I can't photograph (all the frames just blend in together on the picture). So I am resorting to showing you a photo of the termimesh!!!
And how our backyard is so overgrown it's beginning to blend in with the view!!

At least Leilani's having fun...definately worth photographing if I do say so myself!!!

The eaves were another boring thing to look at, think about etc. I did notice that they are huge and I have to paint them!!!

The great news is our new brickie has started and is nearly finished - YAY!! Hopefully by the end of tomorrow all the "wall" bricks will be done then by the end of the week all the window sills will be done too. Then all we need to do to get to lock up is finish the cladding between the split, put the window in up there, fit the front door and garage doors and a little bit of capping. It seems so close but when I write it down it seems like so much!!

The first half of the cladding at the split - I wish I had of chosen the Surfmist colour now. Oh well maybe later....

It's so good to see the brickies working I feel like something is happening again.

The Right Tiles & the Front Door

I put the wrong picture up the tiles are actually this colour:

It reminds me of the water in the Whitsundays which goes well with our bricks (like that should ever be a consideration when you're talking bathroom tiles!) which are also inspired by the Whitsundays being called Daydream.

Well if I can't live in QLD I may as well build my house like it! LOL

This is the front door we are thinking of:It's a Hume door and its 1200mm wide which is bigger than a "normal" door.

Wadda ya think???

The Kitchen Guy and Bathroom Ideas

We met with the kitchen guy on Monday. We already had a plan which we are pretty much sticking to. The local radio station had an Auction late last year and we bid on and won a $15,000 kitchen (installation not included) which we paid $7,500 for so we are pretty happy. The kitchen guy said our kitchen is pretty basic so we should get everything under cost but it may be extra for soft closing draws but we're still hoping we can get it all under the $15,000 limit.

This is the colour scheme I am liking at the moment. What do you think? Leave a comment and let us know. You can see a bigger picture here: http://www.polytec.com.au/thermo_doors_introI just love the dark cupboards with the white and the red splashback is gorgeous!

Now we are at the stage where I can see the rooms and how they "fit in" to the rest of the house I am starting to really think about colours and finishes. I've always loved a plain white bathroom and kitchen but now that I'm actually getting closer to choosing I'm loving black and white and colours!!

We've already bought the feature tiles for the bathroom.Whilst I was flicking through the Ikea catalouge I noticed a bathroom that had wood features - I can't tell you how far away from what I would usually like that is but I love it - I can't find a picture of the bathroom online and my scanner isn't working but if you have a 2009 catalouge it's on page 268 or if you're really keen the Ikea website (http://www.ikea.com.au/) has an online catalouge. Here's a taste:At the moment I am loving the idea of the aqua feature tiles with white walls and the wood shelving and accesories. I am a bit nervous that the wood and the tiles will be too much??? Am I crazy or will this look good?

Anyway, that's where I'm at with the house. Dale is still working over there all the time doing all the little things to get ready for the next stage but nothing major - all the rooms are still in the same place!

Until next time.....

Brickie Trouble

Why is it that every trade seems to bag out the others? You'd think they'd have some sort of tradie bond!! Each trade seems to say that the other trades did a bad job or didn't think about other tradies. So much whinging!!

We are having a bit of trouble with the brickie - he has decided the job is alot harder than he thought - the scaffolding is too far away from the house, the slab is not even, there isn't enough room at the sides of the house etc etc etc. So he now wants a daily rate instead of a per 1000 rate.

We are currently looking at other options ie. new brickie and getting quotes in. We just can't afford such a big blow out and it looks like there are other brickies around who don't see the problems in the same way ie. not problems at all. Unfortunatly this will delay everything by several weeks as the new Brickie can't start for another 3 weeks. Oh well there is still plenty to do!! Here are some more photos.

Looking past the dining room window.

Looking back the other way down the side of the garage.

The bricks are not as nice wet.

Our bricks dry - note the mortar colour is just like Surfmist!!!